Caring for the elderly should become a recognised profession and be recommended to school leavers as a rewarding career to meet the demand for higher standards in homes, ministers will be told tomorrow.

Dame Joan Bakewell, the Government-appointed adviser on old age, says she has been taken aback by the level of concern among elderly people about standards of care in their own homes and in residential establishments.

In her first annual report as the official Voice of Older People, she contrasts the “happy, smiling faces of people attractively dressed and enjoying each other’s company” on the marketing literature of care providers with what she hears from thousands of elderly people.

“There is clearly a problem of monitoring the service being provided,” Dame Joan says in the report, which is published today. “It is clear that many people do not know what recourse they have when there are lapses, what redress they can expect and, indeed, many fear that they will be victimised if they are known to complain.”

But what ultimately underlies the problem of standards is the low status of the job. “The question remains though, why are carers undervalued and underpaid? With the right training and pay, there would be more carers, allowing those in the industry to have enough time to take care of their clients properly. As this will undoubtedly be a sector of employment growth in the future, it would be sensible to set up a career path for young recruits,” she says.

Concern about standards of care also extends to the NHS. Complaints vary from GPs not taking an older person’s condition as seriously as they would a younger person’s, to neglect in hospital wards. Many of the complaints concern attitude and respect.

“Older people can object to the casual informality of nursing staff, and are confused by the numbers of people responsible for their needs. Many visiting families feel that older patients do not have enough attention paid to their eating regularly and nutritionally,” she says.

Dame Joan says that dirty wards cause particular distress. “I have been stopped in the street and beseeched to ‘go and see for yourself’ to a hospital near to my home. When things go wrong, there is an urgency and desperation to people’s complaints,” she says.

The Government is attempting to address public concern about standards of care for elderly people and has indicated that it will bring forward plans to overhaul the system. The super-regulator, the Care Quality Commission, has also announced that it wants to change the way care homes are inspected.

Dame Joan says she believes that England will eventually have to establish a statutory commissioner for older people in the same way as Wales and, soon, Northern Ireland.

She says there is a danger that various national and local authorities and institutions cannot keep up with the multitude of problems thrown up by the ageing population.

“These problems call for expertise, investment and understanding. They will need to be continually borne in mind as the country’s economy, its social welfare and health programmes are shaped for the foreseeable future. It is one of the greatest challenges of our day,” the report concludes.